• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Cognitive assessments: the importance of cognitive baseline tests

acMany stud­ies have shown that when the right group of peo­ple uses the right tool, sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits can occur. The ques­tion then becomes, “What assess­ments may help pin­point who may ben­e­fit from what type of train­ing, and set up objec­tive, inde­pen­dent base­lines for cog­ni­tive per­for­mance over time?”

Users of brain fit­ness prod­ucts will need assess­ments to iden­ti­fy cog­ni­tive bot­tle­necks, that is, the cog­ni­tive skills that con­strain the oth­ers and that, if improved, can have a pos­i­tive impact on oth­er func­tions. The devel­op­ment of inex­pen­sive and wide­ly avail­able, yet valid and reli­able, cog­ni­tive assess­ments will then be crit­i­cal to the main­stream growth of the brain fit­ness field.

Most assess­ments today that require the par­tic­i­pa­tion of trained pro­fes­sion­als are expen­sive and present lim­it­ed scal­a­bil­i­ty. A major issue in the use and refine­ment of cog­ni­tive train­ing tools for the appro­pri­ate groups today and in the future is the time and eco­nom­ic invest­ment involved in most­ly face-to-face neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal assessments.

To address this issue, a num­ber of ful­ly-auto­mat­ed com­put­er-based cog­ni­tive assess­ments are being used more fre­quent­ly in large-scale clin­i­cal tri­als, help­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies iden­ti­fy and eval­u­ate poten­tial cog­ni­tive effects of drugs. The pri­ma­ry goal behind the design of these neu­rocog­ni­tive bat­ter­ies is not to diag­nose indi­vid­ual patients, but to mea­sure cog­ni­tion with enough reli­a­bil­i­ty and valid­i­ty to show objec­tive base­lines and any changes rel­a­tive to this base­line in large sub­ject samples.

This may well open the way for such assess­ments to be made avail­able for a wider array of con­sumer uses. Poten­tial­ly, these assess­ments could be repur­posed to help estab­lish a cog­ni­tive base­line, assess men­tal func­tion­ing before and after clin­i­cal con­di­tions, track the con­se­quences of aging, iden­ti­fy pri­or­i­ties for cog­ni­tive train­ing, and mea­sure progress inde­pen­dent from the train­ing itself in indi­vid­ual patients and healthy individuals.

Keep learn­ing by read­ing more arti­cles in the Resources sec­tion, and also please con­sid­er join­ing our free month­ly Brain Fit­ness eNewsletter

This new online resource is based on the con­tent from the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness (May 2009, $19.95), by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,620 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy